June 9, 2019

In 2018 a research group led by Professor Dr. Marc Koper at Leiden University in the Netherlands discovered a catalyst that minimizes the production of chlorine gas during salt water electrolysis. The catalyst consists of two metal oxides: iridium oxide with a layer of manganese oxide only a dozen nanometers thick. The former exhibits high catalytic activity for the formation of both oxygen gas and chlorine gas while the latter acts as a membrane that prevents the chlorine ions and suppresses the formation of chlorine gas.

This seminal discovery, no less important than the wheel, can enable the direct production of hydrogen from seawater and its eventual byproduct –very pure fresh water- later, when the hydrogen is used as a fuel.

Likely Consequences
The discovery has profound scientific, geopolitical, economic, military and environmental implications.

Scientific
Selectivity in electrolysis is one important measuring bar on the efficiency of a catalytic converter. Therefore, the discovery that manganese oxide has the ability to selectively block the transport of chloride ions literally opens the floodgates to possible large scale production of hydrogen directly from the ocean: a free, unlimited, renewable, widely available energy carrier whose sole byproduct is pure water.

Geopolitical
Producers of fossil fuels will face terminal competition from hydrogen-exporting countries throughout the world. Examples could be Iceland, whose vast geothermal resources could be used to produce hydrogen; Hawaii and most tropical islands worldwide; Central America, Mexico, the Mediterranean countries, coastal Africa, South America, and South Asia, all with copious sunlight and unlimited seawater. Furthermore, unlike fossil fuels, no one can claim ownership of the ocean, and by extension, of the hydrogen in it.
The enmity between the U.S. and Iran will likely subside because oil, the raison d’être for the conflict, will ultimately disappear.
Israel will be directly impacted; the inevitable demise of America’s ability to spend with abandon on the military –heretofore unimaginable- will nudge it to reach a mutually acceptable accommodation with the Palestinians.

Economic
In time, the petrodollar agreement between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia will become moot. As consumption of oil drops and eventually ends, there will be no need for dollars to buy it and the greenback will lose its status as reserve currency of the world. America will face a day of reckoning with respect to its perennial yearly deficits and accumulated debt. Russia, OPEC and other fossil fuel producers will have to figure out how to survive without that source of revenue since China, India, Japan and Europe –collectively the largest consumers of energy- will no longer need them.
A new politically-neutral medium of international exchange –not necessarily a fiat currency, since all currencies in the world are fiat- could be introduced to succeed the petrodollar. For example, Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) could be adopted as such based on a formula that, among other things, progressively rewards a country for its per capita production of hydrogen and -conversely- progressively penalizes it for possession of weapons of mass destruction, exports of heavy weapons, and interference in the internal affairs of others.

Inequality
Unlike fossil fuels, hydrogen could, in time, substantially reduce the yawning wealth inequality between rich and poor nations as well as between rich and poor people within them. Ownership of production of hydrogen and water –and therefore the rights to its profits- could be shifted from shareholders to homeowners. That could usher in a permanent self-funding system for large-scale construction of affordable housing for the working classes.

Climate Change
If and when the world embraces this discovery and hydrogen replaces fossil and fission fuels for the generation of electricity and mobile applications, the dumping of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere will cease. That will effectively shut down the engine wreaking havoc with the planet’s climate.

Drought and Food
If hydrogen-powered plants are built on mountaintops in remote inland deserts, where desalination is impractical or impossible, vast amounts of new pure water will be manufactured as a byproduct. This will support a much-needed expansion of agriculture to feed the world’s fast-growing population and the mass planting of trees to help recycle the carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere.

Conclusion
Change is coming. To paraphrase former President Barack Obama, it is something you can count on.